Meet the Quilters of Bunker Hill

An old-fashioned wooden frame secured with a small metal vise is stretching the quilt while a pair of women sit and stitch.  With precision, they secure the cotton quilt top to the other layers, one tiny stitch at a time.  Dora Latty says she only found time to start quilting after retirement.  "What I know is what I've learned out here."  Mary Sue Gordon also learned most of her quilting skills at the Bunker Hill Community Club, "I came out quite a long time before I actually made my quilt."  Now these women and several others are painstakingly making a special quilt that will be raffled off at year's end.

Nearby, Dorothy Houseman is hand-stitching the binding onto a cowboy motif quilt for someone.  The entire clubhouse is busy with stitching, ironing, cutting fabric and even a little work on the sewing machine.  The club is machine-stitching some handbags that will eventually be part of another fundraiser.  Some put together quilts faster on the machine.  But the quilters who meet at Bunker Hill are famous for their preservation of hand-stitched masterpieces.  So their December raffle and May quilt show bring people from all around who appreciate quality handiwork.  The proceeds go to keep the community center going because it's a gathering place for singings, dinners and pretty much anything else the Southwest Missouri community needs.

Judy Rickett says,  "I just love it, we all sit out here and we all gab and work and we all have a big dinner, we all bring potluck and we sit down and eat a big dinner together.  We do things for the community and it's fun."  Decades ago, the group would have likely been part of an extension service women's club.  Today, it's less formal.  Anyone interested in quilting is invited to show up and start stitching.  Most participants make a mix of personal and group projects.

I was especially touched when Gordon said she used to know my grandmother, Imel, who was a proficient quilter herself.  Although she could sew, my mother Ruth Ann never found the time to get involved in a group like this before her death from cancer at age 65.  They don't talk much about it, but some of the quilters have also suffered a loss.  They enjoy giving back to the next generation and to the community at large.  As Rickett said, "Quilting is not just sewing, it's putting yourself and your heart into a gift for someone."